


Key to the Past

by HallowHolmes



Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Gen, Post-Episode: s04e13 Journey's End, Post-Episode: s07e05 The Angels Take Manhattan
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-01-01
Updated: 2014-01-01
Packaged: 2018-01-07 01:58:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 739
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1114188
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HallowHolmes/pseuds/HallowHolmes
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>There are special keys, scattered all throughout time and space, each with its own unique story to tell...</p>
            </blockquote>





	Key to the Past

**Author's Note:**

> UPDATE 1/21/15: More content added!

It has been many years since that final meeting at Bad Wolf Bay, and Rose is happy with her life. 

Her family is wonderful, her job is fantastic. Perhaps most importantly, she's got John. 

They had very quickly decided for a multitude of reasons that he couldn't go on being called the Doctor, so he took on the name of his favorite alias. Things progressed very quickly from there, and Mr. and Mrs. John Tyler (because really, John Smith? It's so normal that it's _abnormal_ ) were building their new life together. 

She had moved past her old life. The only remnant was the key that constantly hung around her neck. It was hidden from sight most of the time, but whenever John saw it he'd just smile in understanding, and they'd hold each other close, telling old tales and making up new ones- content with what was and what is.

\------------------------

Martha's key is hung on a peg near the door. She keeps it there as a reminder.

It reminds her of the countless number of lives that she's saved. All the lives that she's affected for the better. It reminds her own life changing experiences as well- and though not all of them were pleasant, she can't find it in herself to wish that they had never happened.

When she walks past the key every day, it reminds her that she is strong. That whatever problems she may be facing, she can get through them. 

And while a simple phone call could bring the Doctor back into her life, Martha knows that even if she ever does dial his number someday, that key would remain exactly where it is. She'd gained everything she possibly could from her travels with the Doctor. Now, she’s just happy to see the key and be reminded that the worst is behind her, and that she can do anything.

\------------------------

Donna has a key that she doesn't know the purpose of. 

It's not for the house, or the car. She tried asking her friends about it, to see if maybe one of them had lost it, but they all said it wasn't theirs. She's tried it on every single thing with a lock she owns, and it doesn't work with any of them. It's completely useless. And yet she can't bring herself to get rid of it.

She knows it must be important, because whenever she holds it, she gets this unexplainable feeling that there's something out there, just beyond her reach. It's absolutely boggling. Her subconscious also seems to think it’s important, too. She has a habit of fiddling with things when she's deep in thought. It's usually small objects near her, and her keys are the perfect size. She's noticed, though, that more often than not, her hands focus on that key in particular.

Gramps sees her staring at it sometimes, and she notices out of the corner of her eye the sad smiles he sends her way when he thinks she isn't looking. She's knows he must know something, and she's come close to asking him about it many times, but she never does. Those smiles come with an absolutely devastating look in his eyes, as if the sight of her is breaking his heart, and she doesn't dare bring it up in fear that she'll hurt him.

So Donna continues on wondering. Maybe someday, she thinks, she'll finally figure out the mystery behind it. But not today. It's giving her a headache just thinking about it.

\------------------------

In a small box in an apartment in New York, a pair of keys sit beneath a pile of photos and an old blue journal. The first had been given to its owners a lifetime ago by a mad man. The latter two were given to them by their daughter.

At first the box was occasionally brought out for reminiscing on long, nostalgic evenings. But soon it held another purpose.

When little Anthony Williams came into their life, the contents of that box became bedtime stories. Amy and Rory told their son all about an impossible man and his blue box, visiting alien planets, traveling throughout time and space to see things he’d only ever read in history books, and futures beyond his imagination. And sometimes, Anthony takes one of the keys and pretends that it opens the door to new worlds, and that he could travel the universe- just like his Mum and Dad.


End file.
